The web of deceit about Benghazi begins to fray Washington Times ^ | Wes Pruden

Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 4:33:44 PM by Arthurio

What did the president know, and when did he know it? Of what steel are the Republicans in Congress made? We’re about to find out.

Big scandals from little leaks grow. Watergate was at first only “a third-rate burglary.” Bubba thought he was only trying to cover up the details of a failed real-estate scheme down on the White River. Humiliation, resignation and even an impeachment followed.

History warns presidents that second terms are never Sunday picnics, and the unfolding — exploding is more accurate — of the story of what really happened on a violent night in Benghazi, Libya, and the days that followed is Barack Obama’s introduction to his next four years. We probably ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Nearly everyone suspects that Mr. Obama, trying to avoid questions about the mishandling of Benghazi, was running out the clock, hoping to stumble past the election before being overtaken by facts and hard reality. Some of the congressional Republicans are talking bravely now about getting to the bottom of the sordid story, and the Democrats give every sign of attempting to squelch and evade: let’s move on, nothing to see here.

The woman revealed to have been carrying on an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus lost her driver's license in a Washington, D.C., park recently, sources tell U.S. News.

A Maryland National Capital Park Police spokesman confirmed that a jogger found a North Carolina license in Rock Creek Park belonging to Paula Broadwell. Park Police planned to hold it for 90 days, per policy, and then send it back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The Park Police also alerted the FBI, says Bill Kellogg, a spokesman for the Park Police. The FBI did not initially return calls for comment on the report.

dude, this will go no where just like all the other non-sense the right is spitting. I would bet my account on it, from all the evidence that is out there, there doesnt seem to be any wrong doing, the response time was fine, in fact faster then other embassy attacks. There may have been mistakes, like what the reason for the attack was etc, but if you are expecting some conspiracy where obama denied help and aided the murders or some shit, you will be in for a rude awakening.

It's time you start supporting the US, this whole tea party crazy right winger shit is dying now and it will be a brutal death.

Yesterday, Dianne Feinstein threatened to subpoena the CIA over a trip report from David Petraeus that he allegedly wrote after a personal trip to Benghazi after the terrorist attack that killed four Americans. Today, ABC News reports that Petraeus' visit to Libya was no mere observational tour. The then-Director of Central Intelligence conducted his own interviews with personnel on the ground in Libya in preparation for testimony that has now been cancelled:

In late October, Petraeus traveled to Libya to conduct his own review of the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

While in Tripoli, he personally questioned the CIA station chief and other CIA personnel who were in Benghazi on Sept. 11 when the attack occurred.

The Libya stop was part of a six nation trip to the region. Petraeus intended the review as a way to prepare for his upcoming testimony before Congress on Benghazi.

This makes the decision to withdraw Petraeus from the hearing even more curious. According to their source, Petraeus thinks that acting DCI Michael Morrell can testify to Petraeus’ findings and add more of his own, plus Petraeus wants to avoid a “media circus” after the revelation of his affair.

However, while that may be understandable, those reasons aren’t enough to deprive the committees of his personal perspectives. Petraeus has years of hands-on experience dealing with terrorist networks as a military commander. Morell has over 30 years’ experience in the CIA and can obviously give a good accounting of the intelligence, but doesn’t have Petraeus’ insight. Plus, after having personally conducted the reviews in Libya, Congress needs Petraeus to expand past whatever made it into his trip report — the very document that the CIA is now reluctant to share with Feinstein and other Congressional investigators.

Federal agents are inside the home of the Charlotte author at the center of a scandal involving CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned on Friday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations confirms that it has agents inside Paula Broadwell's Dilworth home.

While agents on scene would not confirm what they were looking for, nearly a dozen agents were seen carrying boxes and taking photographs inside the home.

Paula Broadwell, the biographer who wrote a book about retired four-star general David Petraeus, 60, has not been seen at her Dilworth home since the news connecting her to an extramarital affair with Petraeus.

CBS News has obtained the CIA talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on Sept. 15 regarding the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, four days earlier. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan says the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

"Available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault... There are indications that extremists participated," read the CIA's talking points.

CBS News has obtained the CIA talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on Sept. 15 regarding the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, four days earlier. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan says the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

"Available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault... There are indications that extremists participated," read the CIA's talking points.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...

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more lies

DIDNT OBAMA SAY THAT IT WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK DURING THE DEBATE?

Yep. He called it an act of terror on day one, yet sent Rice to the talk show circuit to blame it on the video. This administration will be mired in scandal.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal sheds light on why the FBI’s discovery of David Petraeus’s affair may have been enough to lead to his downfall:

In David Petraeus’s final days at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency, his relations with chiefs of other U.S. agencies, including his boss, National Intelligence Director James Clapper, took a contentious turn. …

Mr. Petraeus wanted his aides to push back hard and release their own timeline of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi and a nearby CIA safe house, seeking to set the record straight and paint the CIA’s role in a more favorable light. Mr. Clapper and agencies including the Pentagon objected, but Mr. Petraeus told his aides to proceed, said the senior officials.

By all accounts, the driving force behind Mr. Petraeus’s departure last Friday was the revelation about his extramarital affair with his biographer. But new details about Mr. Petraeus’s last days at the CIA show the extent to which the Benghazi attacks created a climate of interagency finger-pointing. That undercut the retired four-star general’s backing within the Obama administration as he struggled with the decision to resign.

This makes a lot more sense. The internal discovery of Petraeus’s affair by the FBI could have been handled two ways: quietly or not quietly. The administration may have decided to go the second route–asking Petraeus to submit his resignation–because of the extent to which he was clashing with officials like Clapper and Panetta in his final month.

It also explains why this very favorable profile of Petraeus, which his office clearly cooperated with, turned up in the New York Times just a week before his resignation. The article quoted friends of Petraeus defending him from criticism over his Benghazi response, praising his management style, and playing up his supposedly warm relationship with President Obama. Petraeus, being the smart media operator that he is, may have been trying to rehabilitate his name through the press. But it wasn’t enough to save his job one week later.

Sen. John McCain launched a fierce counterattack on Barack Obama yesterday after Obama arrogantly called McCain’s criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice “outrageous” and said critics of Rice should “go after me.”

McCain, speaking on the Senate floor, went straight for the jugular:

“This president — this administration — has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or been engaged in a coverup, neither of which is acceptable to the American people. I speak as a friend of Christopher Stevens, I speak as a person who knows something about warfare, I speak as something of an authority — that this attack could have been prevented if the information on the ground had been taken into consideration.”

McCain wants a congressional Select Committee to investigate what happened in Benghazi and how the Obama Administration reacted. Paraphrasing Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee during the Watergate investigation, he said bluntly:

There clearly is a need because there is a huge credibility gap among the American people because of the [contradictory statements about the attacks] beginning with the President of the United States. What did the president know? When did he know about it? And what did he do about it?

McCain then reminded Obama that although he is the president, he is not the king:

He really does not have any idea of how serious this issue is. I’m a United States Senator. We have our responsibilities, we have our duties, and we are not picking on anyone here.

And McCain connected the dots by noting that whatever Rice said, her marching orders came from upstairs:

Those talking points did not come from the CIA, they came from the White House. Who at the White House gave her those talking points?

Obama might do well not to cross a man who’s survived more serious issues than a verbal attack.

imagine if obama gets impeached for some odd reason because of this which can be a possibility..can you imagine what black people would do? Black people are freaking lunatics when it comes to obama and pay not attention to any facts about anything...I can just imagine black people running down the street and targeting the first whitey on sight lol ..the block would get hott

Rep. Peter King appeared on Fox News this morning and stated that David Petraeus testified that the original CIA talking points about Benghazzi indicated it was a terrorist act and cited al Qaeda involvement. Somewhere after leaving CIA, the talking points were changed. He did not know who changed them.

Ex-CIA Director David Petraeus told lawmakers during private hearings Friday that he believed all along that the deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya was a terrorist strike, even though that wasn't how the Obama administration initially described it publicly.

Petraeus told lawmakers that the CIA's draft talking points named specific terrorist groups. But Petraeus said some federal agency changed it to "extremists."

The CIA determined immediately after the Sept. 11 Libya attack that "Al Qaeda involvement" was suspected -- but the line was taken out in the final version, and was instead blamed on a YouTube video, even Obama blamed it on the video at his U.N speech a few weeks later.